New Realm

She pressed the shard of glass into her flesh, blood oozing out. That demon asshole probably was lying about being able to do anything. She was sick, and there wasn’t any help for it. Eliza was a danger. If she got in contact with another human, it could spell even more doom for an already hellish world.

But an insistent chirping began, distracting her from tearing her throat wide open. A large bird was approaching, and it had a wing at an odd angle. Eliza stood and stared at the new arrival, glass still in her neck. She dropped the shard and took off her jacket, forming a large nest of sorts in her arms.

“Come on….that wing needs to be checked out…. it’s alright now…”

The bird – a Spanish bird of prey known as a Lammergeier – tilted its head slightly, before hopping up onto her arm, its long sharp talons digging into her skin despite the fact her jacket protected her arm from the birds claws. Barbas did not always like playing the role of the “poor helpless animal”, but his master needed to learn more about these mortals on this realm, and to do that he needed a spy. It still did not mean it was hard on Barbas to do this, after all, he’d just had his wing broken, and despite the fact he would do almost anything for Vile, sometimes it wasn’t easy. The Shapeshifter noticed blood on the girl’s arm and he could tell she had done it on purpose, “Foolish mortals, always harming themselves and never thinking of the repurcussions” he thought to himself; he almost wanted to revert back to his dog form, reveal his identity and give Eliza a piece of his mind, but he managed not to. He let her examine his wing before she left the room for a while, leaving him to take in his surroundings; the houses and buildings in this realm were similar to Nirn, but not exactly, it was hard to describe, really, it was like this world could be Nirn’s twin, but not an identical one. Eliza soon returned with some bandages and began wrapping the wing, “Well, at least it’ll stop it from being so sore” Barbas thought bitterly.

Eliza propped him up with small but soft pillows, setting a bowl of water down in front of him.

“I’d love to make a fire for you and keep you extra warm, but….yeah can’t do that. Sorry. I may have a rat or two for you…” Her throat still bled, and blood was trickling from the corner of her eye.

She was clearly not well, but was ignoring it the best she could to help the bird.

“At least the boss around here can’t feed from me when I’m like this. Blood tastes terrible. Sick and malnourished. Since there’s no more silver, at least bad health keeps shark man at Bay….”

Eliza brought a dead rat for the bird.

“I think I hallucinated something. Some kind of demon guy came and offered help. Yeah…I didn’t believe he could help. Even if he could, he would just try and hurt me in some way for sick and twisted enjoyment…laugh at me as I squirmed and screamed.”

The house was rather empty and lifeless. Cold and dark. The Salazars were all sleeping deeply, aside from Armando who would be returning later. Eliza wrapped a blanket around herself.

“Not going to trust an immortal. They’re all the same. They toy with us, torture us, lie….they should walk in our shoes and know what it’s like to be truly helpless and afraid against such power.” She put a blanket on the injured bird.

“And here I am, talking with a bird about some shit that was all in my head….”

Barbas rolled his eyes as Eliza gave her opinion on his master; sure, Clavicus was known for his trickery and giving wishes to people that did not turn out the way they hoped, but the only times he purposely tortured people were when they deserved it. For instance, the Daedric Prince hated it when mortals interfered with powers that they did not understand, and he felt that they needed reminding of their foolishness. Barbas knew Vile would not torture this girl, mainly because he knew how undeducated she was about him, the fact that she knew little to nothing about him kept her at bay of his wrath; however, it still irritated him to come across mortals who, althugh clearly nervous of him, were not fully understanding of who he was and what he could do. Meanwhile, in his own realm, Clavicus was becoming increasingly annoyed as he listened to Eliza’s comments, “Maybe you should stop assuming to know me and my motives, mortal!” He growled. Despite the fact Barbas was a separate being, he was still an aspect of Vile’s power, and that meant Clavicus could hear and see everything that Barbas could. He felt himself become fed up with this girl’s attitude, but he would not do anything too drastic, instead he had another idea, “Barbas” he spoke to his dog through telekenesis, “If she makes one more asinine remark about me, I give you permission to speak with her”.